The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-03-26
THE DELIGHTS OF SMIThvilLE.
Oyster. at the Bottom of the Bay-Hav-
ing Fun with "a Big Sea Turtle.

Oyster, at the Bottom of the Bay-Hav-
ing Fun with a Big Sea Turtle.
Snithyille is thirty miles from VIII
mington, y. c., at the mouth of the Cape
Fear river. In the bay in front of Smith
vile Is Coon island, which is inhabited by
an infinite number of raccoons. Nobody
takes the trouble to hunt them, because
nobody cares to eat them. Not even the
darkies down there know how good roast
coon is. Almost all the bottom of the
great bay is covered with enormous natu-
raj beds Of the largest, latest aud most
deliciously favored oysters Imaginable
Successive generations of oysters through
ages past have piled their shells upon
those Of their predecessors until they have
made solid masses of shells like rock or
coral reefs, as much as twenty-five feet in
depth. In many places they have builded
until now they are out of water at low
tide, and the boys of Smithville find il
handy and amusing TO build fires ON them
when the tide is out and roasting them in
their beds, flirting each oyster out of his
shell as lie is cooked and swallowing him.
The tide rises and falls about five feet
Monster green turtles, some weighing
as much "a 800 pounds each, frequent
the beach all the way down to Fort Cas-
well, four miles below the town. People
eat their eggs. but do not eat the turtles
Beach parties of young folks go down
there gather beautiful shells, have dances
on the hard sand in the moonlight, roast
oysters and have fun with the turtles
When female turtle wishes to lay her
eggs she crawls up the sandy beach To n
place that suits her fancy, digs with her
fiipDers 4. big hole in the sand and lays in
the hole 200 or 800 eggs. The eggs are
not dumped in pile. but laid out smoothly
and neatly in rows. When she com
menccs laying il makes no odds to her how
big a beach party stands around superin-
tending the process. She attends strictly
to business and if the eggs are taken from
the hole a. fast as she lays them il does
not at all discourage or frighten her.
When she gets through she scrapes the
sand hack into the hole whether the eggs
are there not and then starts back for
the water. That is the time for the beach
party to have fun with her. As many of
them as can mount her big, dome like
back do 50, and she carries them right
down to the waters edge, where they
Jump off and she goes on. She does not
seem TO mind their weight or show any
disposition to resent their good natured
familiarity. Sometimes they turn her
over on her back, but after she has help
lessly paved the air little while they
right her again and she waddles off. OF
course. there must be something wrong
mentally in a people who can tumble
around green turtles in that way without
ever thinking of eating them.
And they don't eat soft CLAIMS either,
though the beach sand Is packed full of
those excellent bivalves. Indeed, the
very idea of eating them seems to
awaken feelings of disgust and loathing
among the darkies. Nor do they eat the
mussels, which are abundant. Hard
clans, of which there a few millions in
pretty much every place where anybody
might look for them in the bay, they do
eat, but not with any particular enthusi-
asm, though their hard CLAIMS are really
very fine.-New York Times.